We've Had a Few Visitors...Snakes, Guns, and Pigeons

Like this guy...

Yeah, it's a pretty cruddy picture. Kinda far away wouldn't you say?

And it's gonna stay that way.

He's a bull snake, which means he looks a lot like a rattler, but without the rattles and more importantly without the whole venemous thing. He eats rodents and really when all is said and done he is friend and not foe. Tell that to my endocrine system, 'cause its freakin' out. I snapped a pic and let the little guy lie.

We are teaching our little guy gun safety, so have been quizzing him incessently on the NRA's Eddie Eagle rules: "What do you do if you see a gun?" "Stop. Don't Touch. Leave the Room. Tell a Grown Up" - by the way I am AMAZED at how quickly he got this, I literally said it, helped him with it once and he has it down - I'm so proud! Anyway, yesterday with the arrival of the snake, Rowdy had the brilliant idea to show Willie the snake and explain that snakes are like guns and the same rules apply. So smart!

On a related note, if you are a gun-friendly family it is your duty to make sure that every child entering your home is safe - being a responsible gun owner means taking measures to keep guns out of that child's hands and to educate them as to what to do if they ever find themselves in a situation where a gun has not been properly stored - its just a reality that no matter how many steps you take to secure your firearms, you don't know 100% what measures your kid's friend's parents are taking - nobody is perfect. Cornered Cat has a fantastic section on kids and guns with tons of common sense approaches to familiarizing children with and protecting them from guns. Seriously, check it out.

But back to my original topic, visitors. This fellow showed up last Friday or Saturday:

Apparently he likes it here, 'cause he's still hanging around. Now I've never been much of a pigeon person, I associate them with loads of poop and masses of fellow pigeons. This guy though, I don't know, he's kind of growing on me. First of all, it's just him. I read that pigeons are very social critters, so I don't know what his deal is but so far he's very much a loner. And really he's kinda pretty, right? I mean you've got to admit it...he's pretty in a yucky shimmery pigeon kind of way...

He's banded on both legs. We're not sure what that means. Does he have a human that loves him somewhere? Or was he part of some hideous pigeon-torturing experience from which he just staged a heroic getaway? Is he even a "he"? He's quite the enigma, that is all that is certain.

I also read that pigeons like to roost. For the love of all that is clean and un-marred by avian crap, why does he want to roost on my patio table??? We finally got the chickens out of there and in comes this freeloader!

After I nursed Boone to sleep last night, I lay in my room watching jet contrails streak back and forth across the sky outside our window...

For once the television was turned off and I savored the peace and quiet, it was so beautiful just laying there listening to neighbors voices drifting in and out, my baby's sleeping breath, the coos and good-night crows of the chickens and rooster putting themselves to bed. And I thought of our new buddy and went to check, and there he was...

...just outside my kitchen window...crappin' on my patio table.

P.S. Someday I'll talk about my shop again. I've been trying out a new technique on the tshirts that I'm hoping will get me more standard quality prints, and having some failures, and getting down about it. And getting distracted by an embroidery project. And getting down about that too. It'll all be OK though. I have so many new designs to make up, I just need to get my new technique perfected and then I'll get rolling again and I'll tell you all about it. Have a lovely friday y'all.